R E M ARK S O N MILTON. THAT I may not pafs abruptly from Spenser to Milton, I fay, purely for the fake of introduction and connection, That Milton, the favourite poet of this nation, has been, and I fuppofe will be, the subject of effays, differtations, notes, &c. That I have a mind to thruft myself in amongst thofe, who have laboured on this celebrated author; ut Me quoque principibus permixtum — That I fhall offer a few remarks upon him; and fo take a final leave of the English poets *. * It appears however, that he did not so closely keep to his purpose as here intended. The profpect of a new and valuable X 2 edition Typhon is the fame with Typhoëus. That the den of Typhoeus was in Cilicia, of which Tarfus was a celebrated city, we are told by Pindar and Pomponius Mela. I am much mistaken, if Milton did not make ufe of Farnaby's note on Ovid, Me:. V. 347. to which I refer the reader. He took antient Tarfus perhaps from Nonnus : Ταρσος αειδόμενη πρωτοπΊολις : which is quoted in Lloyd's Dictionary. v. 276. on the perilous edge Of battle, &c. edition of our great Epick Bard again called forth his critical attention; and hence, from his friend Dr. Newton's publication of Milton, we have been enabled to make fome confiderable addition to our Author's Remarks; resuming fuch only for this work, as were found there inferted under the name JORTIN. For Dr, Newton's Teftimonies, as taken from his two prefaces to the poems of Milton, See the Advertisement prefixed to this volume. ' Perhaps Perhaps he had in mind Virgil, Æn. IX. 528. Et mecum ingentes oras evolvite belli. B. II. 684. Through them I mean to pass, That be affur'd, without leave ask'd of thee. See in page 166. the remark on Spenfer, Faery Queen. B. III. Cant. iv. St. 15. B. IV. 716. when to th' unwifer fon Of Japhet brought by Hermes The epithet unwifer does not imply that his brother Prometheus was unwife. Milton ufes unwifer, as any Latin writer would imprudentior, for not fo wife as he should have been." So audacior, timidior, vehementior, iracundior, &c. mean k bolder, &c. quam par eft; more than is right and fit ;" and imply less than audax, timidus, &c. in the Pofitive degree. B. V. 357. Dazles the crowd, and fets them all agape. Virgil, Georg. II. 463. Nec varios inhiant pulchra teftudine poftes. v. 689. The quarters of the north. Sannazarius, de Partu Virginis, III. 40. Vos, quum omne arderet Cælum fervilibus armis, There are other paffages in the fame poem, of which Milton has made ufe. B. VI. 552. in hollow. Cube Training his devilish enginry. I knew one, who used to think it fhould be hollow Tube: To which it may be objected, that Enginry, (Machine,) are the hollow Tubes, or Guns, themfelves. B. VII. 173. and what I will, is Fate. Statius Statius, Theb. I. 212. grave et immutabile fanttis Pondus adeft verbis, et vocem Fata fequuntur. B. VIII. 2. So charming left his voice, that he a while Thought him still speaking; ftill stood fix'd to hear. Imitated probably from Apollonius, I. 512. See before, Remarks on Spenfer,, Page 184. The Thought was originally Homer's. Iliad. B. 40. θείη δέ μιν αμφέχει' ἐμφή. divina autem ipfum circumfufa erat vox. Lucian, Somn. Εξι γούν - η φωνή των ακουσθέντων Evauλos and Socrates, in Plato's Crito; Ka v pos αύτη ή ηχη τουτων των λόγων βομβεί, και ποιες μη δυνασθαι των αλλων ακνειν. B. IX. 312. while Shame, thou looking on, &c. Milton often ufes the Nominative cafe abfolute, as the Greeks do; which, whether it should be called a cafe abfolute, or an ellipfis, we leave to the Grammarians to determine. |